1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a storage device such as a disk or tape drive which has an erasable nonvolatile memory for storing parameters and/or microcode used to control the storage device. The invention is more particularly related to a storage drive having a nonvolatile semiconductor memory such as a flash memory which stores operating parameters and microcode which are changeable by a user and control the operation of the storage device.
2. Discussion of the Background
Conventional storage drives such as disk drives and tape drives have the microcode used to control the operation of the drive fixed by the drive manufacturer. This does not permit any changes to be made in the way the storage drive operates by the end user.
Some newer storage drives include a changeable nonvolatile memory such as a flash memory which stores the microcode for controlling the operation of the drive. If there are defects found to exist within the microcode, the user may execute a program to load a new version of the microcode into the flash memory. The new version of the microcode can be mailed to a user on a floppy disk or the user may download the new version of microcode via a modem or other manner of remotely communicating with a bulletin board set up by the drive manufacturer or group of computer users. However, these conventional systems do not permit a user to control the manner in which the drive operates.